John Aravosis | America Blog | April 17, 2013
In a rather disturbing development, the city of Los Angeles revealed Tuesday that four gay or bisexual men in Los Angeles have contracted meningitis over the past four months – two of whom died.
Health care advocates immediately blasted the city’s “indifference” towards the issue, especially now that the LA cases have been linked to an ongoing deadly outbreak in New York City. From the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, moments ago:
“While AHF applauds the County for offering the vaccine to low-income and uninsured residents, we are disappointed that the L.A. County Public Health Department is not urging people to get vaccinated. We believe it shows an insensitivity to the population involved and to the understandable concerns they have,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “How many deaths will there need to be before the County will acknowledge these incidences as an outbreak? The County has known since December and has done nothing to alert the community. The fact that these cases have been shown to be linked to the outbreak in New York should have set off alarm bells, but the L.A. County Public Health Department remains indifferent.”
I’d reported earlier on growing concerns out of New York City about a particularly deadly meningitis outbreak there among gay men. (I also interviewed the CDC and did a good backgrounder on the outbreak, about how its transmitted, and whether gay men in other cities should get vaccinated.)
According to Jonathan Fielding, the director of the Los Angeles Public Health Department, there is an 85% overlap between the strain they found in 3 of the men in LA and the deadly strain that’s been causing problems in NYC. They do not yet have the results of the strain that infected the 4th man in LA. I’m going to talk to the CDC to find out what that 85% really means. At the very least, it sounds like the 3 cases in LA are related to each other, which right there raises some concern.
Daily Queer News 